Ground supported drinking fountains are commonly used to provide water to poultry. A conventional poultry drinking fountain includes a basin with an annular drinking trough and an upright reservoir seated atop the basin. Water in the reservoir is gravity fed into an annular basin and metered by vacuum pressure within the reservoir tank. The drinking trough is located at the bottom of the fountain so that the water level is accessible to poultry of all sizes.
Poultry fountains of this type are often used in outdoor environments and are often rendered useless when ambient temperatures drop below freezing because the water in the trough and reservoir freezes. Heretofore, the solution for this freezing problem has been to sit the fountain on a separate heated base or platform. The heated base includes an electrical heating element that warms the water in the fountain to prevent freezing. Separate heated bases are effective down to ambient temperatures around 10° F. While the use of heated bases prevents freezing, they are only effective to ambient temperature around 10° F. and can only be used with metal fountains, because the high wattage heating element must heat surface of the base to approximately 320° F., which would melt plastic fountains and may present a potential fire hazard under certain conditions. In addition, placing the fountain atop the base also raises the height of the drinking trough making the water inaccessible to smaller poultry.
The present invention incorporates a heating element into the basin to prevent water from freezing in the drinking trough and the reservoir without raising the height of the drinking trough. One embodiment of the heated poultry fountain of the present invention includes a basin with an annular drinking trough, a bell shaped reservoir detachable mounted atop the basin and a heating element affixed to the bottom of the basin. The heating element covers the bottom surface of the basin under the reservoir and along the inner wall of the drinking trough. Accordingly, the heating element prevents the water in the reservoir, as well as the water in the trough from freezing when ambient temperatures drop below freezing. The integrated heating element into the fountain design eliminates the need for a separate heated platform, which raises the height of the drinking trough making water inaccessible to all sizes of poultry.
These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of an embodiment of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.